Join the Team
Who We Are Looking For
We provide pastoral care to global servants from diverse cultural and language backgrounds. At the heart of our ministry is a shepherd’s calling—a deep commitment to walking alongside others in their journey. This care can take many forms, shaped by one’s unique gifts, skills, training, and experience.
Our Barnabas International staff travel regularly to offer pastoral care and counseling, Bible teaching, and discipleship at retreats and gatherings. We also provide professional and personal development, individual and family debriefings, spiritual direction, and more—all with the goal of encouraging and equipping those we serve.
Typical Ministry Platforms
- Pastoral care through on-site and virtual visits
- Ministry to families, marriages, and teams
- Group and Individual Debriefs
- Training in areas of Member Care
- Speaking/teaching/facilitating at conferences and retreats of other sending orgs
- Coaching, spiritual direction, and mentoring of global workers
- Men’s and women’s ministry (eg. retreats and conferences)
- Licensed Counseling and Therapy of global workers
- TCK/MK care
Preliminary Qualifications
Barnabas is looking for staff who minimally have the following qualifications:
- Able to clearly articulate a calling to the shepherding care of global servants.
- Endorsed, sent, and financially supported by a local church.
- Ready and able to raise monthly financial support for personal and ministry expenses.
- If married, both individuals must apply as full-time, fully active members. In other words, Barnabas is not accepting any married individual whose spouse is not also applying to Barnabas as an active member who is engaged in the pastoral care of global servants.
- Cross-cultural ministry experience (not a strict requirement); at a minimum, an applicant must demonstrate the ability to thrive personally and spiritually while regularly moving in and out of various cultures.
- A verifiable history of walking alongside others in a pastoral way, or if clinically trained, a posture of shepherding care informing their therapeutic models.
- Readiness to work with Barnabas leadership to design an international ministry and a willingness to engage in international travel multiple times a year, primarily focused on those serving the least reached people groups.
- Gifted, skilled, and experienced in shepherding others, such as personal pastoral care, skilled listening, facilitating, coaching, etc.
- A spiritual life others would eagerly want to emulate.
- A high level of self-awareness and relational skills that others can readily identify.
- Minimum of one year of formal Bible training or equivalent training/experience.
- Formal training commensurate with the ministry role to be pursued within Barnabas.
FAQs
Where are Barnabas staff located?
Barnabas staff live all over. The majority of the staff are based in the United States and have highly itinerate lifestyles. Staff are not required to live in any particular region or location. Many staff do not change location when joining Barnabas, however if new staff are interested in relocating overseas, we collaborate with them in that process.
How do budgets and income work?
Each Barnabas staff member is required to raise support for all of their personal living and ministry expenses, including one-time startup funds to facilitate onboarding. Barnabas ministry uses a suggested donation protocol rather than fee for service. On some occasions other organizations offer to cover some costs such as airfare and/or room and board. This can be gratefully accepted. Barnabas leadership helps new staff set their initial budgets.
Does Barnabas take an overhead fee from support?
Yes. Barnabas takes a 10% assessment of raised support to cover administrative overhead and various staff events.
Can I work part time with Barnabas and part time at another job?
Other than the initial period of transition into the organization, Barnabas is looking for full-time pastoral care providers. We are currently not accepting applications for part-time staff, nor do we do “short-term” efforts.
Does Barnabas give staff specific ministry assignments?
We work with our staff to help discern which ministry engagements would be a good fit for them. These opportunities may originate from external requests to Barnabas, organizational and team initiatives, or come from within the network of relationships that the staff members maintain. No matter the source, most aspects of the development of these ministry opportunities will be up to staff members. Therefore, people who come to Barnabas must be tremendous self-starters.
Does Barnabas accept counselors or those with a clinical background?
Barnabas is a pastoral care provider, and some Barnabas staff are clinicians. The crucial distinctive that BI leadership is seeking in new staff is a strong, obvious pastoral posture in all the work they do. If the applicant has a clinical background, Barnabas will still be looking for ministry distinctives, such as being Word saturated, demonstrating a shepherding approach to ministry, and being highly relational (i.e., not programmatic driven or “professional/client” driven). While clinical training is a big asset to meeting the needs of many global workers, our approach and care is still deeply rooted in a shepherd’s heart.
Must I have cross-cultural experience?
Cross-cultural life/ministry experience is an ideal that Barnabas seeks in its staff, although it is not a hard and fast requirement. Many people have gained valuable experience traveling internationally doing “short-term” trips. However, there is a significant gap in understanding between someone who has visited a country and those who have immersed themself in another culture, language, and the stressors of everyday cross-cultural living.
What is the application process for Barnabas?
The Barnabas application process is somewhat fluid. Our philosophy is to be as relational as possible through this process. Of course, relationship building takes time. Thus, we would ideally like to have time with applicants in varying scenarios, particularly seeing an applicant “in action” if at all possible. Below are the required elements in the application process. A reality that complicates this process is that the leadership team is fully engaged in ministry activity and all travel globally. Naturally, this slows the process down somewhat. It normally takes at least 4-6 months from initial application to the official start date of new staff members.
Here are the general steps of the application processs:
- Preliminary Information Form filled out and submitted via our website. This gives us some background info and invites us into the conversation.
- Face-to-face time, either virtual and in-person, to get to know one another. These are not interviews. The more contact you have with Barnabas leadership and staff the better. The annual Pastoral Training in MemberCare conference is an ideal place to focus on this relationship building. In this phase you’ll have conversations with several different Barnabas staff and leadership.
- After several conversations, if we sense all the basic requirements are in place, you’ll be invited to complete and submit a formal application, including references.
- Barnabas also will run a background check on all applicants.
- Face-to-face interview with the Barnabas leadership team.
- Any resulting follow up that may be needed.
- Acceptance and starting date set.